System and Method for Processing Captured Images for Moving Platform Navigation

1. A system for processing images captured by a moving platform, the system comprising: a central processing unit (CPU), said CPU being interconnected functionally via a system bus to: at least one sensor configured and disposed to capture a perceived environment including at least one of visual images of the environment and range data to objects in the environment; a rendering unit (RU); and at least one memory device thereupon stored a computer model of the environment and a set of instructions which, when executed by said CPU, causes the image processing system to: capture a perceived environment through the at least one sensor, the perceived environment including visual images and range data; render the computer model of the environment in the RU forming a rendered model of the environment; compare the rendered model of the environment with the perceived environment; selectively update the computer model of the environment based on the perceived environment; and employ an iterative process to compute a position and orientation of the moving platform by performing a Z-buffer optimization of the perceived environment against the computer model of the environment.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions which, when executed by said CPU, causes the image processing system to: perform a direct numerical optimization on a per-point error metric of the Z-buffer optimization.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions which, when executed by said CPU, causes the image processing system to: form at least one of a plurality of points, voxels, and textured polygon meshes that embody the perceived environment.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein each of the at least one of the plurality of points, voxels, and textured polygon meshes includes geographical positioning system (GPS) coordinates.

5. A system for processing images captured by a moving platform, the system comprising: a central processing unit (CPU), said CPU being interconnected functionally via a system bus to: at least one sensor configured and disposed to capture a perceived environment including at least one of visual images of the environment and range data to objects in the environment; a rendering unit (RU); and at least one memory device thereupon stored a computer model of the environment and a set of instructions which, when executed by said CPU, causes the image processing system to: capture a perceived environment through the at least one sensor, the perceived environment including visual images and range data; render the computer model of the environment in the RU forming a rendered model of the environment; compare the rendered model of the environment with the perceived environment; selectively update the computer model of the environment based on the perceived environment; and employ an iterative process to compute a position and orientation of the moving platform by performing an iterative closest point (ICP) optimization against the computer model of the environment, wherein the ICP optimization comprises a point-to-point optimization of the perceived environment or a point-to-plane optimization of the perceived environment.